The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has approved amendments to the Trial Court's Uniform Rules on Small Claims (Trial Court Rule III).  The new rules are effective October 1, 2009.  According to the SJC press release, these changes will have a major impact on debt collection cases.  The changes address a number of issues,  including "increased certainty of service, insufficiently detailed claims, increased scrutiny of default judgments, and notice to the court when a judgment is paid." See the full SJC announcement for more details.